I admit that I haven’t been overly impressed at the thought of Vista SideShow. Who cares if your bag can let you know you have email, I mean who wants strangers reading all their porn spam? RICAVISION has an idea for Sideshow that I do find very appealing though, they have grafted it onto a media center remote.

Now I can sit across the room while I watch my favorite flicks and still read my RSS feeds and check my email. I can also use the remote to schedule recordings with Media Center as well. The SideShow Remote control is a Bluetooth IR+ Class 1 device with a 100 meter operating range. In addition to the features I already mentioned you can also use the remote to browse your music library by album, artist and genre. You can also select recorded TV programs with the remote by program name, episode name, program summary, channel, date recorded length and a snap shot.
All other SideShow features are also available on the remote like I?M notifications, gadgets and calendar. When listening to your music you can get more information about the track and artist on the fly from the remote as well. The RICAVISION Vista SideShow Remote Control is set to be available in April and will carry an MSRP of $199.